Teacher Educators' Dispositions: Footnoting the present with stories from our pasts

Abstract

University educators are charged with preparing pre- and in-service teachers for today's school populations; however, university faculty may assume the role of fostering and evaluating their students' dispositions toward diversity without having first examined their dispositions toward their own students. In this critical autoethnographic self-study, seven teacher educators in one university department, from multiple disciplines, reversed common notions of studying the dispositions of our students and turned the focus onto our own struggles with our dispositions as teachers of teachers. Findings illustrate the powerful positions and judgmental stances we held as we navigated our teaching as well as a need for teacher educators to devote time to deliberate critical self-study of their own dispositions.

Keywords:

• autoethnography
• dispositions
• social justice
• collaborative self-study